Mother of Jailed Journalist Appeals to Rouhani for his Release

The mother of Bahman Daroshafaei, the former BBC journalist arrested on February 3, has appealed to the Iranian president to free her son.

“My son has done no wrong,” she writes, adding that she had voted for Rouhani in 2013 because she believed he would bring “hope and kindness” back to Iran. Read the letter below.

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate

Dear Mr Doctor Rouhani, President of Iran

Hello,

I am Bahman’s mother. Bahman Daroshafaei. A week ago, a few men were here, waiting for me to hug my son and say goodbye. The men took him away. They didn’t tell me where they were taking him, they didn’t tell me who they were, why they were taking him, or what they wanted from him.

I really don’t want to write anymore, because I don’t think you need to be a professional writer to write about an injustice. But my daughter has asked me to write two more paragraphs.

Mr Rouhani,

If I hadn’t voted for you I wouldn’t even write those two paragraphs. I’m writing to you, because I think you owe me. Like you owe millions of Iranians who voted for you. You know better than anyone else that we didn’t vote for you just to lift the sanctions. That was important, and thank God they were lifted. But we voted for you to keep the hope alive, to have more justice, to have more kindness in our society, to stop the brain drain and to help our youth build our country.

Mr Rouhani,

I know you are a busy man. You are the president, and it’s the anniversary of the 1979 revolution. Incidentally you owe me because of that as well. My son’s name is Bahman [the name of the Persian month when the revolution happened]. He’s been in solitary confinement for a week for doing no wrong.

May God release all prisoners.

Safoora Tofangchiha

21 Bahman 1394

10 February 2016

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